It is easy to fall into the trap of being permanently negative about events taking place in the political world. After all, any believer in social justice in the “Age of Austerity” will inevitably have a lot to complain about. In the United States, the Democrats are engaged in a potentially devastating chess game with the Republican-controlled legislature (and the Senate, though part of the legislature, can only do so much) in an absurd situation under which the two parties are trying to look as if they’re trying to reconcile the position that the richest 2% of the population should cough up more tax before Medicare, Medicaid and education should be touched, with the position that not only should these budgets be cut, but they should be cut even further than needed in order to fund more tax giveaways to the richest 2%, as advocated by Paul “Granny Starver” Ryan. And of course, in reality, many in the two parties are not even trying to look as if they’re trying to look as if they’re trying to reconcile these two contradictory positions.
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In Britain, our government has just announced a series of real-terms cuts to benefits and tax credits going to hard-working families in order to fund a Corporation Tax cut- not only that, but only large businesses (or those that bother paying it, at least) will benefit. Some in the Labour Party, which has taken a few shaky steps in the right direction, are wavering on whether to oppose it. The false Tory rhetoric of “benefits scroungers sleeping in with the blinds drawn” has become so ingrained into the political scene that the disabled forced to undertake taxing and sometimes humiliating assessments; the conscientious job seeker on £71 per week in a barren employment market; and the families with parents on the Minimum Wage, struggling to meet the costs of housing, energy and childcare, will all have no political voice left for them.
Centre-left governments in Australia, Brazil and the more spirited one in France are constantly running into problems, and the forces of globalisation present a constant threat to social progress in nations rich and poor. Climate change has fallen off the radar altogether, though environmental, social and economic disaster creeps ever closer.
Nevertheless, I have always had little patience with the narrative that the modern world is in some sort of decline. Though I am hardly an optimist (or, come to think of it, an idealist) I take the view that overall, human life in the 21st Century is the best it’s ever been. The massive inequality and damaging austerity that is taking place today will affect society for decades to come, and many lives will permanently be shaped by it. However, austerity is causing sufficient anger that the development of a progressive alternative that the permanent legacy may well be a transformation of our politics for the better.
The Occupy movement benefited from and still enjoys widespread sympathy, even if this did not translate into sufficient political pressure. Today the public have a much more realistic approach to big business, and now lack patience with firms avoiding their tax liabilities in these times of hardship. Starbucks has just buckled to pressure from the public (in part) by agreeing to pay at least £10,000,000 per year in tax in 2013 and 2014. Yes, it’s people power, and we are going to see a lot more of it in the future. Google, however, safe in its near monopoly of the search market, has made it clear that it doesn’t care in the slightest. Dear reader, please consider Everyclick (UK only) or Ixquick as tax-paying, socially responsible alternatives.
Speaking of which, the United States has had a spot of good news: Apple is going to move a lot of its production back to America from China. Perhaps attempts to maintain viable industry and thus a self-sufficient economy are not doomed to failure after all. And again, the move is down to public pressure after hearing about the Foxconn (the name says it all, doesn’t it?) scandal. True, I am no fan of Apple (Personally, I prefer high-spec and reasonably priced electronics to overpriced, low-performance brushed aluminum that people often buy just to prove they’re well-off) but it is good to see just a little re-industrialisation- and something that will reduce the airmiles attached to electronics.
Things aren’t looking quite so bad (in the long run) after all.